This invention pertains to a method and a system for managing print-job data en route from the creation source of that data to one or more printer(s) which will be called upon to complete the print job. In particular, it relates to a novel concept involving PDL/RIP-independent selection of data boundaried blocks which, for subsequent compression and decompression purposes, and en route to one or more printers, are treated independently as managed blocks of data.
The method and system of the present invention significantly address the problem of reducing the amount of data transmitted over a local bus or over a network in relation to the management of various print jobs. Lying at the heart of the invention, in terms of achieving this problem solution, is the concept of examining print-job data to identify appropriate data-boundary areas of data which can be segregated, compressed and later decompressed as individual blocks. In one manner of practicing the invention, this boundaried block-handling approach is performed in relation to pre-assessing specific availabilities and capabilities of potentially usable printers, and then performing boundary selection, and block compression and decompression, to behave in a best-mode manner that relates to these discovered capabilities. By examining a print data stream, in light of knowledge or an assessment regarding the operational characteristics of the available one or more printers, an appropriate and efficient printing balance can be achieved between speed, data flow volume, and data rendering requirements and capabilities.
There are a number of specific ways of practicing the invention, particularly with respect to where the selection of block boundaries, and the implementation of compression and decompression, take place. The Tables, and the detailed block/schematic drawing figures, which are contained herein, word-labeled as they are, fully describe how these various practice approaches can readily be implemented by those skilled in the art. These drawings and Tables per se completely describe the invention and its practice, with little need for much added verbal amplification. The descriptive text which now follows proceeds with this fact in mind.
From a broad methodological point of view, the process of the invention can be described as including the steps of (a) interposing, in a print-job data stream, and a location which is functionally upstream from where data registration takes place, a capability for examining the data in that stream, (b) employing that capability, and according to a set of selectable, predetermined rules, establishing plural print-job-data-stream boundaries which thereby define boundaried blocks of data within the data stream, (c) utilizing another set of selectable, predetermined rules, and on a block-by-block (boundaried) basis, selectively compressing data within the boundaried blocks, (d) at a point in time following the compressing step(s) sending the blocks ultimately as individuals to a printer (or printers) for printing, and (e) as an output from a printer(s), delivering, in any appropriate selected format, a document product which completes the selected print job.
The structure of system of the invention is one which includes an appropriate collection of operatively connected hardware/software components that are designed to collaborate, and to implement the several steps just set forth in the preceding statement.
The various important features and special advantages that are offered and attained by the present invention will become more fully apparent as the description which now follows is read in conjunction with the accompanying, fully expository drawings.